By Arturo Vallejo
As I write this, schools and universities across Mexico are closed, along with almost all beaches, hotels, shopping malls, government offices, and a good chunk of businesses, small and large. If quarantine continues, other industries are expected to follow suit. In fact, according to the Mexican Employers’ Association, COPARMEX, 43 percent of micro, small and medium enterprises could go bankrupt.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands remain in their homes. Many — myself included — are looking after children who have seen very little of the outdoors for weeks, much less their friends.
These scenes are repeated in much of the world during this global pandemic. Some countries have implemented curfews, large fines and penalties for anyone who leaves their home. Faced with an unprecedented moment like this, it’s not surprising that we ask ourselves when we we can “return to normal.”
But the real question should be what is it that we consider normal?
Illustration by Ouch.pics
Reconsidering “normal”
For our environment, “normal” is a bleak picture.
Between 1992 and 2017, Greenland and Antarctica have lost 6.4 trillion tons of ice and 17.8 millimeters of sea level. Closer to home, the data from Mexico’s National Meteorological Service shows that the increase in temperature in different regions of the country has accelerated in the last five years, and with it intense droughts and fires.
Last month the Great Barrier Reef in Australia suffered massive bleaching due to warmer water temperature caused by climate change. These events affect more than 1,500 species of fish that inhabit it, plus the 411 species of coral and dozens of other species. It’s the third time this has happened in the last five years. Unfortunately, these events will become “normal” because of their recurrence.
Between 1990 and 2015 (the last year reported), total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have grown by 54 percent. According the Mexican government’s Sixth National Communication on Climate Change, the environmental contingencies declared from time to time in the Mexico City Metropolitan Valley are considered normal.
And although no one wants this health crisis to become normal, we need to acknowledge the positive impact it’s had on the planet. Emissions in China have dropped by up to 25 percent and in Italy by 10 percent.
As the Citizen Observatory on Air Quality points out, ozone values have remained at more than 100 points, and although they eventually decrease, we know that our actions against COVID-19 will not solve this in the long term. We need other ways of combating pollution and, above all, climate change.
Changemaking for a new normal
Illustration by Ouch.pics
Naomi Klein, journalist and social activist, recently opined in an online conversation about the epidemic that “Normality is a huge crisis.” The social activist and author of the controversial but popular “Shock Doctrine” sees our present time as great opportunity for change.
The moments of crisis, she writes, are also an opportunity to move towards the society we want. Klein isn’t the only one who thinks this way. Many organizations are working in their own fields to achieve transformation. And no matter how small efforts may seem, collectively we can create a larger impact—especially in the environment.
For example, social entrepreneur Julio Álvarez (of Grupo Promesa) is cultivating sustainable environmental habits in Mexico’s future generations through a student-led environmental education methodology. They’re changing ecological behavior in school communities and beyond. Schools are adopting responsible waste management systems.
In the same sector, the Universidad del Medio Ambiente — co-founded by Victoria Haro, now its academic director — is working towards a regenerative, sustainable and ethical future, training changemakers to transform socio-environmental systems. The program’s design, combined with the University infrastructure, help students to connect more deeply with the planet.
Others, like Oscar Moctezuma, are building coalitions for conservation. The Ashoka Fellow created Naturalia, Comité para la Conservación de Especies Silvestres A.C. to strengthen efforts to preserve Mexico’s ecosystems and wild species.
Each of these changemakers are working towards a social and cultural transformation. It requires changing our habits of production, consumption, waste management and, above all, our way of thinking.
A time for collaboration
Of the global challenges we face, few are as broad as protecting our planet and climate. To solve environmental challenges, we need everyone to take action—regardless of their age, gender, geographic location, or political ideas.
In Mexico and beyond, we need more changemaker initiatives for the environment — including clean and fair regenerative energy projects, cutting-edge technologies to reduce carbon emissions and other green house gasses, and strategies to boost sustainable transportation and tourism.
At Ashoka, we’re committed to systems change —efforts to rethink and redesign our social structures, institutions and culture. Our Fellows are building coalitions for change by bringing together young people, organizations and entrepreneurs who work for the planet and the climate.
To quote Naief Yehya, the truth is that “nothing will ever be the same and we will have to choose between continuing as before and founding a new world order.” Let’s build the world we want.
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